Dem
47
GOP
53
We've been trying to get to this for a few weeks, but more pressing stories came up. Still, it's worth making sure that we get to it, because while the implementation of the policy is schadenfreude-worthy, the policy itself is nothing to sneeze at, because it's quite authoritarian.
This administration, of course, has declared war against higher education. Not all higher education, we suppose, in that they're fine with the "educations" being proffered at places like Bob Jones "University," but certainly most higher education. And leading the fight, by all appearances, is Pete Hegseth. He is himself a graduate of two different Ivy League schools, namely Princeton and Harvard. And his approach has been described by many, appropriately we think, as "I've got mine, and I'm going to pull up the ladder behind me before you can get yours."
One tool that Hegseth can leverage is the various programs wherein the military trades tuition for some sort of military commitment. This includes the Funded Legal Education Program, which the Judge Advocate Recruiting Office uses to attract new talent to run the military's court system. Basically, "We'll pay your law school tuition, and then you'll come work for us for [X] years." Late last month, well after most law school application deadlines had passed, the Department of Defense sent out a long list of private law schools no longer eligible for this program. Allow us to highlight a selection of schools from the list, and see if you see a recurring problem:
Brown
Carnegie Mellon
Florida Institute of Technology
Hawaii Pacific University
Johns Hopkins
MIT
Princeton
Tufts
Note that there was supposed to be a second list of public schools that are now verboten, but if it was sent out, nobody has laid hands on it (the private schools list was snagged by Above the Law).
The problem, as readers may have gathered by now, is that none of these universities actually have law schools. The list did include a bunch of universities that DO have law schools, like Harvard, Yale, Columbia and Northwestern, but also a bunch that do not. The London School of Economics (LSE) was on the list, as well. And while it does have a law school, it is improbable that would-be U.S. military lawyers are looking to matriculate there. "Do you have a lawyer to defend you, General? No, but I DO have a barrister!"
In short, it's yet another slapdash job, just like the list of tariff countries that included an island full of penguins. They started with a list of top-ranked undergraduate schools, separated out the public schools, cut the University of Chicago off the list for unknown reasons (did they think it's also a public school?), and added a few kind of random schools, like Hawaii Pacific and LSE, possibly because they have well-established DEI programs.
All we know is that if Hegseth doesn't get at least a little more competent at his job, he's at risk of dying from schadenfreude poisoning. (Z)